Best week ever for Starr

Saturday

Mar 31, 2007 at 6:21 AM

JAY ADAMS

Brittany Starr stood on the basketball court at historic Crawford Square, where some of the city's best pickup basketball games can be found, attempting layup after layup. They just wouldn't fall for the 5-foot-11 Savannah High senior.

A few friends and former opponents standing by began to rib Starr, saying she was doing it on purpose just to get the rebound. Starr took it all in stride and flashed the contagious smile she had displayed all throughout the basketball season.

And why shouldn't she smile? The standout forward had just completed a landmark senior season and an impressive week that included a roster spot in last Sunday's Georgia Athletic Coaches Association All-Star Games, a GACA first-team all-state selection and word that she had been named the Savannah Morning News Greater Savannah Girls' Basketball Player of the Year.

Someone alert VH-1. Starr is having the best week ever.

"It's exciting. It's a new experience for me because I didn't know I was getting the player of the year," Starr said. "Even though I was No. 1 in our region with rebounding and scoring, I really didn't expect this."

Actually, the past few months have been an exciting experience for Starr. She helped the Blue Jackets continue their progression on the way to a 19-10 record, she averaged 15 points and 13 rebounds a game, in 29 games she recorded 20 double-doubles, she eclipsed the 1,000-rebound mark for her high school career and she's currently trying to decide which college basketball team she'd most like to play for.

That part of it is the culmination of a life almost completely devoted to basketball. Starr got interested in the game at a young age when her parents would take her and her cousin to Daffin Park or Forsyth Park on the weekends to shoot around. The leisurely activity led to a heightened interest in the game, although Starr's first year of competitive school basketball was her freshman year at Savannah High.

But Starr has been facing tough competition for a lot longer than four years. Growing up, and even now, Starr doesn't want to play against other girls. She would rather hoop it up with the guys. The evidence of that kind of training is on display every time Starr steps on the court.

She doesn't care much about scoring. For her, it's about getting the rebound, facing off against an opponent that may be superior under the basket and winning the fight for a loose ball.

That toughness is something she learned from playing against the opposite sex.

"With Brittany, it's best that she plays with the guys because a lot of the girls we meet are not as tough as she is," Savannah High coach April Tate said. "The one thing about Brittany, as she says, if you ever come to our gym and see girls playing, she'll never be playing with the girls. She's always playing with the guys."

The only thing that might have been considered a downer during a spectacular week for Starr was the fact that she didn't quite get the chance to showcase all her talents to college coaches and recruiters in the all-star game. Starr gathered up seven rebounds in the game's first 12 minutes, but she didn't find the basket and finished with no points.

But leave it to Starr to turn a potential negative into a positive. Unselfish comments Starr made in a Savannah Morning News article the following day caught the attention of several of colleges.

"It's not all about scoring," Starr said in Monday's story. "I feel like I did my job because my job was to get rebounds, not score like I should."

Those comments added Albany State among others to the mix along with current leader Georgia Southern and a host of Division II and III schools, as well as some junior colleges. Right now, Starr is weighing all her options and will make a decision based on everything she has heard from the schools.

While Tate wishes Starr could stick around Savannah High and knows Starr will be tough to replace, she also knows it's definitely time for the standout forward to move on to the next level where she will be challenged more.

But neither Tate nor the rest of the Blue Jackets program will soon forget what Starr has single-handedly done for Savannah High with her work ethic, her on-court performances and, most of all, her smile.

"I know that she knows that she's done a lot for women's basketball at Savannah High School," Tate said. "It's just a lot that we're going to miss from her, from her character to the excitement that she brings to the game, the passion that she really has for the game. She's passionate about the game of basketball."